Hammond or Triad?

[Chris65]

I have a cheap LCR meter, & both the Triad C7X and the Hammond 158M (made in Canada) measure close to 10H.

[Paul Joppa]

Paul - does that mean I shouldn't trust it for measuring the chokes?  It appears close on the Triad but way off on the Hammond.

I would not trust it for measuring chokes that will go into power supplies or plate loading chokes. There is no reason not to trust it for crossover and RF measurements.

The point is that iron-core inductors have a substantial variation over the range of voltages and frequencies, so any single measurement is only valid under similar conditions to the measurement.

[braubeat]

if you really want to get into it you can get an LCR meter that checks at various frequencies and then apply current with a constant current source that has very high impedance. this would give useful information but not the whole story.

michael